Chapter 1

"Did you hear? Some guy named Diavel is planning to take on the first floor boss!"
Excited murmurings surrounded the player known as Trance as he wove through the crowds.
He, like many other high level players, had been called to this town to discuss assaulting the floor boss. He wore a blue and grey coat that almost covered the gleam of his breastplate, subconsciously, he tapped the dagger that was strapped to his side and ran his fingers along the scabbard on his back. He found a gathering of players, all higher level than those he had seen on his way in. This must be the place!
He entered the amphitheatre, observing to see any of his friends from the beta were in the crowd.
His eyes fell upon a boy who sat alone, he ran his hands through his raven hair, and adjusted the Anneal Blade that was strapped to his back. His features were softer than his avatar in the beta, gentler. But his disinterested stance told him exactly who it was.

"Kirito?"
Trance approached the boy, who looked up at him warily.
"Do I know you?"
Kirito studied him, then his eyes fell upon the blue and grey coat, a quest reward for defeating a relatively difficult boss. Recognition flooded his eyes.
"Trance? Is that you?" He asked.
Trance grinned.
"Yep."
Kirito grinned back,
"I should have known, you were obsessed with getting that coat in the beta, Should have figured you would go straight for that quest."
Trance chuckled softly,
"Of course I would, this coat is stylish and gives me a sweet buff to boot!"
Kirito smiled, then turned his attention to the centre of the amphitheatre,
"So this is really happening, huh?"
Trance took a seat next to him.
"Seems like it, you remember how hard it was to beat in the beta?"
"Yeah, Illfang wiped the floor with us the first time."
Kirito's face darkened.
"We need to be more careful this time." He muttered.

"Alright, looks like most of us are here!" an enthusiastic voice echoed throughout the amphitheatre, a man walked onto the centre stage. His dull grey armour clashed with his turquoise hair. Something about his confident smile seemed… Familiar to Trance.
"Hey, does he seem familiar to you?" Trane gently nudged Kirito, who squinted at the blue haired man.
"I don't think so." Kirito said.

"How is everyone doing? My name is Diavel and in SAO, my class is a knight!" the blue haired man proclaimed, placing a hand on his chest.
His statement was met with snorts of derision.
"There are no classes in SAO!"
"Get over yourself! A knight?"
Diavel held out his hands calmly,
"Well, maybe not, but I like to think of myself as one."
Diavel coughed awkwardly and continued.
"Anyway, no-ones challenged the floor boss yet, but I think now everyone assembled here today is at a high enough level to challenge Illfang the Kobold Lord and defeat him!"
Murmuring rippled throughout the amphitheatre, from somewhere to Trance's right, a player spoke up.
"Do you have a plan?"

Diavel held up a small leather-bound book,
"I'm sure everyone has read this book?"
Murmurs of assent bubbled from the crowd.
"Right, well, this guide details how to get past the first ten floors of Aincrad, for Illfang the strategy the Beta Testers suggest we use is-"

"Hold up! Beta Testers?!" An aggressive, vaguely annoying voice called out, then a scruffy looking man with yellow-brown hair scrambled towards the stage.
"And who are you?" Diavel sighed,
"The name's Kibaou! And I've got a bone to pick with these Beta Testers!"
He glared into the crowd, searching. Next to Trance, Kirito stiffened slightly, Trance himself found himself subconsciously reaching for his dagger.
Kibaou gave up searching and scoffed, "Those Beta Testers stole the best grinding spots, took the rarest drops and left us to scrounge around for anything we could find! Those two thousand players that died? That's all on the Beta Testers! If they want to make up for it, well, they should just hand over all their gear right now!"

"Now hold on just a minute." A dark skinned mountain of a man spoke up, "Just to be clear, you're blaming the deaths of those players on Beta Testers because they didn't help? And you want them to repay everyone by giving up their stuff."
"That's right, so?"
The man pointed at the book that Diavel held in his hand, "You can get those for free, and I heard everyone saying they read it."
"What's your point?" Kibaou glared.
"That guidebook was written by Beta Testers, everyone could get their hands on these, even in the Town of Beginnings. But people still died. I'm not here to blame anyone, I'm here to fight my way out of here. And you all should be too."

Some of the murmuring that Kibaou's outburst had caused began to quiet down. Kibaou twitched, if this wasn't Virtual Reality Trance would have sworn he could see a vein bulging on his forehead, he looked as if he was ready to attack the man, or dive into the crowd and attack people indiscriminately until the Beta Testers unveiled themselves.
Ultimately he decided that fighting the man or every player in the amphitheater would end poorly for him, and he sat down, grumbling.

Diavel clapped his hands enthusiastically,
"Thank you Mister uh… I don't think I got your name?"
"Agil, the name's Agil." The man said.
"Right, well, thank you Mister Agil for diffusing that situation, the guide tells us that we should split into groups of around 6 people, the group composition should be divided between balanced and specialized, it advises us to have at least 3 groups of DPS players for frontline battle and 3 groups of shield users to draw the agro of the mobs that Illfang spawns. Now remember guys, team composition is important, but what's most important is that you trust the people in your group."

Trance watched as people scrambled to find groups, next to him, Kirito asked, "Do you want to find some more people for a group?"
Trance shook his head "Nah, let them come to us if they want, besides, the two of us could probably take the boss on by ourselves."
"Arrogance like that can get you killed, and unlike the Beta there's no coming back if you do."
The man, Agil, had walked up to him,
"Sorry if I'm wrong but you're Beta Tester's, aren't you?"
Kirito stiffened again. Trance merely looked up, considering his choice of actions, he chose to grin,
"SAO Doesn't have a telepathy skill, so how did you know?" he said, trying to ignore Kirito kicking at his shin.
"Well, when Kibaou was going on his tirade, everyone looked angry or like they had enough of that guy, you two just looked worried."
"I see," Trance replied, "Thank you for standing up for us, but how can we help you?"
"Well, can I join your group?" Agil asked, "After seeing how eager everyone was to go after Beta Testers I don't really want to join any of their groups."
"I don't see how another blade could hurt," Trance said, continuing to ignore Kirito tapping on his leg with his foot. "Welcome aboard, Agil."
"Excuse us for one moment." Kirito said as he pulled Trance away."
"What?" Trance asked. Brow furrowed in visible confusion.
"What the hell are you thinking? We don't even know what kind of person he is!"
"He was willing to stand up for us, that's all I need to know."
Kirito sighed, "Well as long as we don't invite any more strangers-" He trailed off as his eyes were drawn to a hooded figure sitting alone, he made his way over to the figure and spoke to it, after a while he came back over to Trance,
"Um, yeah, she's called Asuna and she'll be joining our Group." He coughed.
"What's this about not inviting people we don't know?" Trance asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Shut up." Kirito said.

"Alright everyone! Listen up!" Diavel said, "We'll review our strategy closer to the day of the raid, our next meeting will be in two weeks' time, use your time to level and find strong gear, until the next meeting, dismissed!"

"You want to go grind out some levels?" Trance asked Kirito.
"Sure, I know a spot near town."
"What about you, Agil? You want to join us?"
"Sure thing, we've got to see how we work as a team, after all."
Kirito turned to Asuna, "Would you like to join us too? Like Agil said, we need to see how we work as a team."
Asuna merely nodded.
Trance coughed once to break the awkward silence Asuna's response left, "Well that settles it, let's head out!"

AN:
Welcome to my SAO Fanfic, for some context on what I hope to achieve, I'm trying to overhaul EVERYTHING, characters, interactions, story elements, lore (Cuz Aincrad has none, and all MMORPG's Need lore). Basically, I hope to make Kirito less of a Gary Stu, make 'minor characters' like Klein more fleshed out. And to basically make a divisive Light Novel/Anime into something a little bit better. Might be arrogant of me but oh well. Please leave a comment on what you liked, didn't like or what I could improve.